HomeLife
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. - Annie Dillard
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fly like an eagle. (steve miller band reference anyone?)
Life is just full to the brim of change. Seasons of busy and seasons of slow. Years of diapers and years of dentist appointments and years of watching kids play fill-in-the-blank sport. Seasons of something. Seasons of nothing. And I have known days in my life that I have felt as if time was going backwards. Seasons of such slow progress and such lethargic pace that I felt I had time to waste. Time to spare. Time to place hastily in a black trash bag and drop off at the Goodwill box in the parking lot outside of Target. But this time, this season, this present life I am shaping…
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Outdoor Hour Challenge. IV.
Here’s what I have learned to love about the weekly Outdoor Hour Challenge: 1. My desire to complete a goal and write a post about it has encouraged me to be regular and routine in our Nature Hikes and Nature Notes. 2. The kids look forward to Tuesday walks more than I do. 3. The regular walks have been a great excuse to take weekly photos of the kids, the yard and our school progress. Because I am joining the Outdoor Hour Challenge late in the game, I am currently working my way through the first ten “getting started” challenges before joining the challenges right where they are. But I’m…
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down for the count
Thursday Piper Finn got sick. In her bunk bed. In the middle of the night. Which is never good. Hair. Bedsheets. Eagle. All altered. The sound of bath water running at two a.m. has never been a welcomed sound. Friday morning Riley had all four of her wisdom teeth removed. She came home looking swollen and feeling dazed and in pain. Friday afternoon I started sharing Piper’s illness. It was a long weekend. (Understatement intended.) Kevin was stellar. I was unendingly grateful for his care and provision the past several days. This ship would have undoubtedly sunk without the careful navigating of Kevin as captain this weekend. I also realized…
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good words III.
This is what He has given us to do, this task here on earth, not the task we aspired to do, but this one. The absurdities involved cut us down to size. The great discrepancy between what we envisioned and what we’ve got force us to be real. – Elisabeth Elliot
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yes. bananas. oatmeal cream cakes. my hawkeye.
The afternoon was caving in. I had desserts to make for a group gathering that evening and my culinary ambitions were far exceeding both my abilities and my time frame. Otto was napping and the girls were playing together and finishing up their school work. I tied on my apron, clicked om my Avett Brothers Pandora station and tossed out my ingredients on to the trusty butcher block. Little feet scuttled into the kitchen. “Can I help you cook this afternoon Mommy?” a little voice asked. I surveyed my helper and considered the offer. I knew what this type of help usually entailed. I tried to hold in my sigh.…
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she was impressed.
Looking over my shoulder as I typed on the blog recently, Mosely took in a giant breath of air. “Whoa, Mom,” she exhaled, “you’ve got your own dot.com?”
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a real thursday.
What is it about a plan, anyway? Seems like whenever you make one, it goes awry. Our homeschool’s motto is stolen directly from Charlotte Mason. I am. I can. I ought. I will. I get the first three. No problem there. It’s the stinkin’ “I will” that always throws me for a loop. It’s not the man getting me down, it’s me. This week I have once again renewed my efforts to establish a daily routine and a nearly-hourly plan for our days. (These schedules have ebbed and flowed for me over the many years of homeschooling, in accordance with our lives and the number of children running around in…
Keep Reading . . .
hello out there.
cliff’s edges.
Five Finds Friday (face cream, Community and Carlos)
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the simple beautiful
I don’t know if the phrase “the simple beautiful” makes any sense. But I’d like it to. This recent move of ours, the recent job change, all of it – it’s been a risk. A risk we’ve willingly chosen. A risk we feel is worth the . . . well . . . worth the risk. And we have been awed, amazed, overwhelmed and humbled at the various ways God has allowed our needs to be met during this season of our lives. Watching the way God provides. That’s the simple beautiful. And it’s been abundant. The labors of love from our friends who painted and cleaned our home before…
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Outdoor Hour Challenge. II.
We completed our second round with the Outdoor Hour Challenge. The week before we headed outside to begin our journey and this week it wasn’t even the least bit difficult to convince the kids to don their boots and jackets and slip outside. We are taking our hikes right after lunch so it’s a been a fabulous motivator to clear the table and tidy the kitchen in a hurry. Our assignment was Challenge #2: Using Your Words. And do you know what we didn’t do on our walk? Use our words. Get it? Oh, the irony. The assignment was to be quiet, to listen, to observe. We spent over…
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mosely. miracles. in the middle.
Can I just talk about this one for a little while? She is sweet and sharp and sensitive. Mosely is clever and brave and the only person in our home willing to kill spiders for the rest of us weaklings when Daddy’s at work. She is eight years old, a second grader and a struggling reader. The teaching of reading, the concept of words on paper, has been a struggle for Mosely since kindergarten. We both watched London catch the reading fever in full swing around first grade. And then we both watched Bergen conquer words like nobody’s business the first day of kindergarten. And there she was. Mosely. Middle.…
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an excuse. or an explanation. a disclaimer, if you prefer.
Since we have moved I have had a more difficult time regularly maintaining my blog. First it was the lack of internet. That makes sense. But lately it’s been something else. I typically write my posts late in the evening. Post-children’s bedtimes. While Kevin is watching some end-of-the-day show that I can no longer tolerate. (Mythbusters, Naked Archeaoligist, Antiques Road Show, any program aired on the Science channel, any program narrated by Morgan Freeman.) Occassionally I write my posts early in the morning. Pre-children’s wake up times. And those times have always both worked out splendidly. Until this house. Because both of those times have something in common at our…
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Outdoor Hour Challenge. 1.
I’ve been using the Handbook of Nature Study as a reference guide for as many years as I have been homeschooling. And our family has been compiling nature journals and keeping nature notes and taking nature hikes as a routine part of our school work. Probably about a year ago I linked from a friend’s blog to the site of a homeschooling mother who uses the Handbook of Nature Study to inspire her family and others to take a weekly Outdoor Hour Challenge. You can explore the website yourself (and you should) but the basic idea is for a family to go outside together once a week on a nature…
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And just like that . . . . it’s gone
What? It’s not really Monday already – is it? Where did this weekend go? Saturday morning cuddles. Saturday chores. Saturday night date. Cold weather. Inside and out. The wind blew so hard it blew the unattractive plastic cover off the edges of our windows. Sunday morning round up. Every child complaining about the attire I had chosen for them. Church. Relaxing afternoon with all of us at home. Haircuts for Finn and Fox. And that’s all. Blink. Blink. Weekend over. Where did your weekend go?
